Mike Leslie

I was inspired to pick up the guitar after hearing Van Halen blasting out of my neighbors radio and then hearing my then older step brothers copy of Def Leppards Pyromania in 1983/84. I didnt start playing guitar until I was in high school, messing around with an acoustic around 1988/89. The pastor of the church I was attending at the time gave me a ¾ size acoustic that was just gathering dust at the church in 89 and I got some strings that Christmas, I finally had my own guitar. I spent every spare moment (after homework and school) I had playing and learning the guitar, attempting to play like some of my favorite musicians at the time. A year later I got my first electric and the following year my first amp. I cut my teeth on Ozzy, Metallica and Megadeth, learning riffs and chords, giving me some fodder to write my own riffs. After I graduated I joined my first band, punk band that turned into a grunge band ala pearl jam. I wanted to play more intricate music and the other members were still in high school so we parted company. I started going to school at Green River Community College, and there I joined the Green River Music Company. They were a Vegas style show group with midi sequenced tracks and choreographed dancing and singing. After the floor show we would bring out the combo band for a dance, playing many genres of music. We played many corporate/private parties; Johnson Controls, WA and OR Teachers Union, Safeway, US Air Force (Hickam Air Force Base Officers Club), Oahu and Mid Pacific Country Clubs, are just a few. I spent two years with that group as a light and video tech and as a rehearsal and performance guitarist/vocalist. Alongside my time in that group I was also playing in a metal band with some friends. In 1996, my time in the Music Company had come to an end with a sequence of shows at the Puyallup fair in WA. At that time I had joined a group called Lunas Web, an operatic progressive metal band. I and the other guitarist re-arranged the tunes they had and 6 months later we were gigging. We were about to showcase for a label when our bassist, and shortly thereafter, our drummer, left the group. Unable to find suitable replacements in the time and city of grunge (Seattle) I left the group. In the following years I played with some acoustic led rock and also some metal bands that didnt get to far. I also began playing in the church worship band, in both the youth group band and the one on Sunday mornings. I spent a few years playing with them with a small break in 1999 when I took a gig over in Glacier National Park with American Cabaret Theater doing their play Rockspell. I sang back-ground vocals, guitar, and sometimes drums. I also had a cameo role in the show where I would come up onto the stage from the wings and play a guitar solo. It was a little different every night. After the season was over at the park I went back to playing with the church bands. I could have gone to Indiana where the theater company was based but the financial picture wasnt favorable. In 2000, American Cabaret Theater attempted to set up a company in Seattle. I was called in for guitar and wound up becoming the default music director, rewriting charts and rehearsing the vocalists. In 2001 I moved to the Portland area and I started school at Portland Community College in January of 2002. There, I entered the professional music program, playing in the large/small show-band as well as the improvisation class band. In the fall of 2003 I began studying music at Portland State University, in the jazz dept. I played with two small combo groups and took some lessons from Jeff Putterman. I just graduated from PSU, got my general studies arts/letters degree and I may further my education by getting a masters in education or something involving social work. I also teach guitar and would love to do that full time....

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